Presently, most full length movies are printed or exposed on motion picture film stock. A typical full length motion picture film can run as long as 7,500 to 10,000 feet of film stock. The average size of present day motion picture film reels can only accommodate an amount of film much smaller than the entire motion picture film, for example, 1500 to 3000 feet. Therefore, the average motion picture film print released for distribution will comprise 3, 4 or more film reels. While each reel will typically contain some type of visual marking to identify its relation to the other reels, for example, reel 3 of 5 or reel 4 of 6, the film carried by such a reel typically carries no such identification. As a result, if the marking on the reel becomes unreadable, those handling the film, say the manufacturer or the theater operator, will have difficulty in visually determining the relationship of a film reel to other film reels of the same movie. Accordingly, there is a need for visually identifying film reels relative to one another.
Some film manufacturers have attempted to resolve the identification issues by marking a small portion (e.g., the first few feet) of the beginning of the film. This was done to identify the film but at a high cost and, thus, was limited to a very short segment of the film that could be easily marked. However, as the film is used, these types of markings generally prove insufficient. Repeated threadings of the film can weaken the initial sections of the film causing breaks that can eliminate the marked sections of film over time. Additionally, if the film should break in the middle, the person splicing the film has no means to easily determine if a spliced section belongs to that particular film reel or not. Thus, it is desirable to have a cost efficient means to allow identification of reels in any situation that may arise.